


the one time Kei tried Grindr, and the one time it failed

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bokuto Koutarou Being Bokuto Koutarou, Fluff and Angst, Homophobic Language, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Minor Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Online Dating, Tsukishima Kei Being an Asshole, Tsukishima Kei is Bad at Feelings, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, not sure if angsty enough to be tagged angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 12:30:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12168909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Tadashi makes Kei go on a date with a guy from Grindr, but not all goes according to plan, and Kuroo swoops in for the rescue.





	the one time Kei tried Grindr, and the one time it failed

**Author's Note:**

> Comment and tell me if i should continue the series. This is the first half of chapter one. The second half is being written as we speak and might be posted if this story gets some good feedback. It doesn't ahve to be alot. i'm not greedy.
> 
> @REI, this is for you sweet child

 “Come on, Kei,” Tadashi began, leaning his body on the side of Kei’s kitchen counter and craning his neck to face the blonde. “When was the last time you went out with someone?”

Tadashi tried to make eye contact with Kei, but the blonde male was adamant, and kept his head down, facing the computer resting on the counter.

“Two weeks ago.” Kei replied, never once raising his head from his laptop screen. “With you and Yachi, and Kiyoko-san.”

Tadashi made a face. “Kei, that’s not what I meant and, you know it.”

Kei finally lifted his head and gave Tadashi an exasperated look. “What do you want me to say, Tadashi? That I went out last night with my millions of friends and we partied early into the morning? That I have so many friends who are simply killing themselves to go out with me?”

Hurt flashed across Tadashi’s face, and the freckled male shrunk back. Kei immediately felt awful. He didn’t mean what he’d said, and he had definitely not meant to snap at the freckled male. It just came out.

Kei put the pen he was holding down and rubbed his right temple with his right hand, momentarily closing his eyes and keeping them shut for a second before opening them again to look at his friend.

“I don’t have the time to go out, Tadashi. Nor do I have the need to. I’m fine.”

Tadashi pushed off the counter side with a sigh and went around the blonde, going to his right side, Tadashi pulled out another bar stool and sat down facing Kei.

“That’s a lie, Kei.” Tadashi said. “You may not want to, but you definitely have the time.”

Kei sighed and looked Tadashi dead in the eye. “Do I now?”

“Yes, you do.” Tadashi maintained eye contact with the blonde. “Kei, you spent -no spend- your weekends doing crosswords and code-words.” 

Kei became defensive. “I enjoy doing crosswords and code-words. Is that a crime? To enjoy puzzles in the newspaper?”

“No,” Tadashi shook his head and looked away first. “It is not a crime and you should enjoy your puzzles. All I am saying is that, please, once in a while, go outside and interact with people other me and your high school friends.”

“Meet some new people, that is all I’m asking.” Tadashi pleaded, begging the male to listen to what he was saying and at the very least consider it.

Kei kept quiet and turned away from Tadashi. He considered what Tadashi was saying, and knew the man’s words held some truth to it. Kei couldn’t remember the last time he had met someone other than his former schoolmates, or co-workers. Kei thought it might be good for him to leave the house on weekends, rather than staying in doors and watching plenty of documentaries, and doing as many puzzles as he could manage.

Kei sighed and rubbed his temple again. “Fine, but I’m not going out with a complete stranger. I refuse to be a victim of abuse due to my own naivety and stupidity.”

Tadashi released an excited sound and jumped off his stool. “Of course not. There is no way I am letting you meet a complete stranger on your own.” Tadashi went to his phone in the living room and returned with it in hand.

“We’ll first try online dating.”

Kei swiveled in his seat and turned to his friend with an incredulous look on his face. “Really? Online dating? Tadashi, that is the first place desperate people and psychopaths go to find their next victim.”

Tadashi laughed. “Don’t be dramatic, Kei. You won’t be any desperate people or any psychopaths next victim. Don’t over-react.” He unlocked his phone and went online to the app store where he proceeded to download Grindr. Tadashi had been the first person Kei had come out to, back when he was in highs chool and very confused about his sexuality. Kei had been fluctuating between being wholly gay and bisexual, till he came to terms with being gay. Tadashi had been very accepting of Kei, then and now, but not everyone had been so accepting.

“Alright, how about him?” Tadashi asked, turning the screen to face Kei, showing him a dark-haired, tall, pale-skinned male. And so it began, Tadashi flipped through several men and showed the ones he deemed as potential to Kei, who denied majority of them, and only accepting a few.

It was such a turn of events that brought Kei to where he was then. Waiting in modestly priced restaurant, searching for an attractive dark-haired male with a beauty spot on his cheek and on his neck, dressed in a black shirt and dark blue jeans.

Kei searched the restaurant as he walked in for any sign of the male befitting such a description, but he came up short. There was no such male inside the restaurant.

Kei blamed it on his eagerness - or, Tadashi’s eagerness and Kei’s lack thereof.

He happened to catch the attention of one waitress and she sauntered over to him, swaying her hips far more than was necessary, and making Kei shift from disturbance to pity. The girl was pretty, beautiful actually, and Kei didn’t see the point of such a beautiful woman playing such childish games meant for horny high schoolers.

“Hello there, may I get you a table?” The woman asked, blinking flirtatiously at Kei.

“Yes, please. Table for two, if you don’t mind.” Kei replied, and instantaneously, the woman’s attention on Kei dropped and she shifted back into appropriate work behavior. She nodded her head and took Kei to an empty seat in the back, not out of sight from the main entrance, but far enough to be invisible unless deliberately searched for.

Kei nodded his thanks as she handed him a menu, and told him to take his time and make a decision when he was ready, and to call either one when he was done. Kei flipped through the menu, his mind not fully processing the actions he was currently engaging in.

Online dating, meeting a stranger in a restaurant, skipping his codewords; this were all odd behaviors for Kei to engage in. Those habits didn’t feel like things he’d be willingly engaged in. They were the sort of habits one would see in a more people-friendly person, and not Kei.

“What would you like to drink, sir?” A different waiter greeted Kei, and politely waited as Kei searched for an appropriate drink. He settled for a bottle of cold water, and said as much to the waiter. Kei waited till the waiter was gone, before turning his attention to the people walking past the store, in hopes of seeing a glimpse of his date.

Kei saw no sign of the male, and turned away from the window, settling in his seat, Kei removed his phone and began looking through his emails (some of which hadn’t been opened or answered in weeks), and typing replies to the vital emails.

The waiter returned with Kei’s water and left it there with a small bend of his head, before turning on his heel and leaving, going to attend to the other customers while Kei sat there and waited patiently.

Kei waited, and waited, and he waited some more. By the time he removed his phone to check for any messages, it was almost three hours past the planned time, and when Kei realized he'd been sitting there, waiting pathetically, for someone who obviously wasn't showing up, he became pissed. Extremely so. Kei clenched his jaw multiple times and returned his phone to the pocket. He made eye contact with one of the waiters and indicated for the bill. Kei wasn't in the mood to sit there any longer till the sun came up, waiting for a complete dick like an idiot. He had already done it for three hours, and he didn't want to make it to four hours.

The waiter came to him, and Kei paid the small bill, before grabbing his coat and standing up, wholly pissed and prepared to leave the restaurant and never look back again. His plan was interrupted by an arm grasping his bicep, and making the blonde turn around, eyebrow arched and completely prepared to rain hell on whomever it was that made him stop.

"Ah, I'm so sorry, babe. Traffic was being a bitch, and then my phone died and I couldn't call you-" A male, slightly shorter than he was, with dark, messy hair, and slit golden eyes stood before Kei. He was dressed in a dark red, almost burgundy, suit. It was fitted, and Kei could see all the muscles in the man's arm and chest bulge and shift with every movement he made.

Kei was absolutely certain he didn't know such a good-looking male. He was positive if he did, he would have never forgotten the male, and wouldn't be staring at him incredulously.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Kei asked, slowly removed his hand from the man's grip and faced him fully. The man may have been incredibly good-looking, and was totally Kei's type, but Kei had already been played once today, and he wasn't about to let it happen again.

The man laughed nervously, and glanced around them. They were apparently gathering attention from the other occupants in the room. Kei didn't falter. He continued to stare at the man with a cool look on his face. Kei wasn't one to crumble under pressure, and he didn't plan on starting now.

"Babe, what are you talking about? It's me, your date," The man offered him a bright smile and Kei knew the man thought such a simple action would be enough to sway him, as it had -probably- done for other countless victims. It didn't.

"No. My," Kei made quotation marks with his fingers, "date is three hours late, and is a brunette."

"That was an old photo, and traffic really was a bitch and-"

"Yeah, your phone died. You already said that." Kei unkindly interrupted.

The man's face flashed with brief annoyance, and Kei maliciously smirked internally. The man came closer, and Kei fought with the urge to back up or kick the man in his burgundy balls. Or both. Kei stayed still as the man came close, and to Kei's utter surprise, the man embraced him. The man hugged him, and to the other occupants, it looked like he was apologizing with a hug, but Kei, as the recipient of the physical contact, knew better and listened as the man whispered in his ear.

"Listen, I'm not an untrustworthy person, and I just saw you walk in and wait for your date to show for the past three hours, and I couldn't let you leave with such a bitter look on your face. My name is Kuroo. Kuroo Tetsurou." The man, Kuroo Tetsurou, pulled away, and gave Kei another smile. This time it did trigger a response. Kei's eyes narrowed and he looked suspiciously at the man.

"Only untrustworthy people say they are not untrustworthy."

Tetsurou snorted at Kei's reply, and slid into the seat opposite to the one Kei had previously occupied. Tetsurou indicated with his eyebrow and his head for Kei to take a seat, and Kei felt his momentarily quietened annoyance resurface. He did not enjoy it when people told him what to do. However, despite his annoyance, Kei sat down, realizing majority of the restaurant's eyes were on the duo.

He gave Tetsurou a dubious look, and crossed his hands over his chest, a clear sign that the other man would have to work hard to make Kei actively engage in any sort of conversation. Tetsurou took up the challenge, and smirked slightly. If he was being honest, when he had seen the blonde sitting alone, he hadn't thought twice of it, thinking the man's date was going to arrive soon, but that had opinion had waned with time, and eventually, he had turned away from his meal and began focusing on the blonde. He had thought the male was enchanting, with the blonde hair, partly slicked back exposing a milky pale forehead, and the black-rimmed glasses that framed a perfect set of golden-colored eyes. Tetsurou couldn't stop observing the male, and it seemed to him that the longer he stared, the greater the allure of the blonde man became.

When Tetsurou had seen Kei signalling the waiter, he had known the man was going to leave, and with how pissed he looked, Tetsurou doubted he'd get a chance to talk to the male. So, he sprung up from his seat, and hurried over.

In some way, Tetsurou had been deluded and he had believed the man would be meek, or timid. He hadn't thought the blonde had such...bite to him. It was incredibly attractive. Well, at least in Tetsurou's opinion, it was.

"And? Why did you decide to stop me? Why are you here?" Kei asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over them once Tetsurou had began daydreaming.

"Would you believe me if I said it was because I found you incredibly attractive?" Tetsurou asked with an irritatingly charming smirk on his lips.

Kei gave him a dead-pan look.

Tetsurou laughed, a full-blown laugh that gathered attention from the occupants nearby. "Yeah, I didn't think you would. You don't look like the type to believe such things."

Kei's annoyance rose a notch higher. This complete stranger had begun assuming things about Kei without even bothering to confirm if his assumptions were right or wrong. Kei was beginning to understand Tetsurou was a rather irritating human being, filled with arrogant assumptions and mindless compliments.  "Oh? And what do I look like?" Kei prompted, his voice not letting on to the annoyance stewing underneath.

Tetsurou was completely oblivious to Kei's annoyance, and pounced on the question. "You give off this aloof aura, as if you can't be bothered to care about the people or things going on around you. But, that's what your aura exudes, not your face. Your facial expressions are alike to your aura, aloof and disinterested, but there's something else, beneath the layers of disinterest."

'What the fuck is he saying?' Kei was astounded by the amount of crap flying from the dark-haired man's mouth. He'd never heard of such crap from an actual living human being, and Kei had heard a lot of crap before.

"What?" Kei played along. He wanted to see how much crap the larger man would be able to spout before he couldn't stand it anymore. "What lies beneath my layers of disinterest and aloofness?"

"Pain." Tetsurou said, surprisingly serious. "Fear, anxiety. You have too many negative emotions bottled inside of you."

Kei's mind flashed back to his time in high school and his parents, if he could even call them that. The fear he'd felt then, the anxiety and the pain. The memories tried flooding his brain, but Kei fought them back, and shoved those horrible moments far, far down, locking them in a box and kicking the box into a dark corner.

"That's an oddly specified description on my emotions." Kei said, all jokes aside. "What are you? Some sort of psychiatrist?"

Tetsurou nodded his head and signaled for a waiter. "I prefer to be called a therapist. The name psychiatrist has a bad reputation, and people tend to get defensive when I say I'm a psychiatrist."

Kei couldn't deny it. He had become defensive once he'd learned of the older male's occupation. "And saying you're a therapist instead of psychiatrist doesn't have a bad repute?"

Tetsurou's response was halted when a waitress approached their table, notepad and pen in hand. Tetsurou ordered for some wine as a starter as they decided what they would eat. The waitress nodded and wrote it down, before turning on her heel and walking off to get their order and menus.

"Saying I'm a therapist is easier for other people to handle. They automatically think, marriage counselor, guidance counselor, etcetera. Unlike psychiatrist." Tetsurou quickly changed the topic before they truly delved into the difference of psychiatrist and therapist. "And what about you? What do you do for a living?"

Kei uncrossed his arms and let them rest in his lap, beneath the table cloth, hidden from view. "I work as a paleontologist."

Tetsurou's eyebrows rose. "Really? In what branch?"

It was Kei's turn to be surprised. It was rare for anyone to know there were more branches under paleontology. Most assumed paleontology was simply researching dinosaurs, and studying them. "In Taphonomy."

"That's nice..." Tetsurou trailed off.

"You have no idea what taphonomy is, do you?"

Tetsurou laughed again. "Yes, is it that obvious?"

Kei snorted lightly. "Yes. It is."

Tetsurou brightened when he heard Kei's minute snort, but before he could say anything about it, the waitress returned with the wine bottle, two glasses and their menus. She placed the bottle and the glasses down, and handed them their menus. The waitress was kind enough to pour for them their drinks before leaving them to decide what they would want to eat. Tetsurou considered resuming their conversation but decided against that. He thought it would be better if they ordered their food, and they both ha d a little bit of wine in them to loosen their tongues and get them to relax first before starting another conversation.

Tetsurou's patience did pay off in the end. They both decided on their meals and informed the waitress before waiting with a glass of wine in hand. Their meals arrived soon after, and after a few lengthy minutes, Tetsurou sparked up another conversation that held till both their meals and wine were over. Tetsurou learned plenty on the stunning blonde male called Kei Tsukishima.

He learned the blonde played volleyball in high school -just like he had- and his team had reached to the finals -just like his team had, but unfortunately, they hadn't managed to win and had lost to another team, leaving Kei's team devastated and crushed. He learned the blonde had been the one to revive his team's spirit and had consequently been appointed as captain the following year, where he proceeded to lead his team to the nationals, and they returned with a shining gold trophy in tow.

Tetsurou learned the reason as to why Kei had been at the restaurant, and the incidents that led to him being there. He'd never laughed harder once he heard the younger male had been forced to use Grindr. Tetsurou had been pleased at the fact that Kei had been stood up and told the male just as much, watching in amusement as the male's mildly drunk mind tried to process his words, before explaining his reason as to why he was pleased. He, till that moment, had never known a person's face could blush that brightly.

And in fairness of learning all those things of the blonde, Tetsurou had been questioned till he gave up some detail into his life. The blonde had listened keenly as he narrated one of their intense matches back in high school, and Tetsurou was honestly flattered. Even when the man was almost flat-out drunk, he was still interested enough in Tetsurou to actually listen to what he was saying.

Tetsurou gave up more information about his life and Kei listened to each story with undeniable interest. Tetsurou wanted to learn even more, all he could, on the younger male but he saw how dangerously close Kei was getting to being full on drunk, and he stopped their conversation with obvious reluctance. Tetsurou paid the bill and gently pried the blonde off his chair and out into the cold night air, hoping it would help sober up Kei.

The cold air worked but not as effectively because Kei couldn't stand without Tetsurou holding him up. Tetsurou didn't trust the cab drivers to efficiently deliver Kei to his home, and he didn't want to leave the male drunk and unprotected. His two options were, one: either invade Kei's privacy and search through his things in pursuit of a reliable, trustworthy friend to come and pick him up, or he could take Kei back to his place, till the man slept the alcohol off.

Tetsurou didn't want to violate Kei's privacy but he knew the chance of the man getting the wrong idea when he came to was also likely. But he didn't care. He would rather risk his reputation and have the blonde male accuse him of all sorts of lecherous acts, than have him taken home by an untrustworthy person and risk having something bad happen to Kei.  And with newly found resolve, Tetsurou hollered for a cab and proceeded to take Kei home with him.


End file.
